ENGLAND'S Ashes euphoria turned to despair here yesterday - thanks to the sort of batting collapse we all thought was history.

Pakistan romped to a 2-0 series win against the team that thumped the Aussies in the summer as eight wickets tumbled for just 43 runs after lunch.

Yet it had all looked so promising for England as Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood survived the opening session in their backs-to-the-wall bid to save the game.

Needing to bat all day, and already having lost skipper Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick, Bell and Collingwood were still there at lunch - with the Pakistanis becoming increasingly desperate for a breakthrough.

With Bell on 88 and Collingwood on 76, no one could have predicted the disaster to follow - and certainly not the speed with which England would capitulate.

But on an easy batting pitch they crashed by an innings and 100 runs - with Ashes hero Freddie Flintoff suffering a first-ball duck and Kevin Pietersen managing just a single.

The collapse from 205 for two to 248 all out took just 12.1 overs - pace ace Shoaib Akhtar finishing with five wickets and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria four.

Vaughan struggled to explain the disaster. "It's quite hard to take,'' he said. "We just couldn't apply ourselves in the conditions that were set.''

Bell and Collingwood scored 80 runs from 29 overs in the morning session. But the last two deliveries before lunch were perhaps a sign of things to come as a Shoaib bouncer cracked Colly on the arm and Bell fended off the final ball with his eyes shut.

England then capitulated in ridiculous fashion. First to go was Collingwood, who edged Kaneria to slip for 80 - the first of three wickets in five balls for the Pakistani spinner with the England total frozen on 212.

Kevin Pietersen, as unpredictable as ever, edged a cut shot to slip and was gone for one. Then Kaneria delivered the biggest blow of all. Flintoff was helpless, hopeless - and unlucky to get such a gem of a ball first up - as Kaneria's googly crept through bat and pad.

Kanaria was unlucky not to complete his first Test hat-trick when Geraint Jones saw another googly spin back in and hit his pad.

Umpire Darrell Hair turned down the appeal but it looked as though Jones got lucky as replays showed the ball would have knocked back his middle peg.

By the time Bell fell lbw to Shoaib's slower ball for 92, the writing was on the wall for England. And the rest fell like dominoes, despite a cameo 25 from Shaun Udal.

Vaughan rejected talk of an Ashes hangover and conceded: "Sometimes you've just got to admit that they played better cricket than we did. That's the bare fact.

"Over the series, they were better than us in all three areas - in the field, with the ball and with the bat. They fully deserved to win 2-0.

"We haven't applied ourselves with the bat as well as we could have and haven't made those big totals that we needed to put them under pressure. It's hitting me hard because I don't like losing but when you've been outplayed you have to accept you don't deserve to win.''

Vaughan said the defeat would provide England his team with their first real challenge after six series wins on the bounce.

"A real test of a team is when you lose a series like this,'' he said. "It's easy to say you're a good team unit when you win - but the real test will come now.''